Many roadways are experiencing increased congestion. At the same time, such roadways must be repaired, maintained and/or expanded to accommodate and facilitate safe traffic flow. The increased congestion, however, is exacerbated when one or more lanes of a roadway are closed for necessary road work. The increased congestion can increase the risk to highway workers performing the road work. Because of the increase in congestion caused by lane closures, and/or the risk to workers, many localities have eliminated road work during the peak rush hours, or further restricted such work to nights and/or weekends.
As a result, there is a need for work crews to close appropriate lanes during the work period and to reopen the lanes in the non-work period. This means that the lanes must be closed and opened quickly, so that the maximum number of hours is available to perform the necessary roadwork.
Typically, there are two types of products used to delineate lane closures. Positive protection devices, such as concrete barriers, steel barriers, plastic barriers, etc., provide positive crash protection to road workers working on the roadway. Typically, however, moving or positioning such devices can be difficult and time consuming due to their size, weight, connection and/or configurations. Non-positive protection devices, such as traffic cones, bollards and portable delineator posts, do not provide positive crash protection but can be quickly and easily deployed and retrieved.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,780 to Schindler and U.S. Pat. No. 6,022,168 to Junker disclose systems for moving devices that do not provide positive crash protection. In both systems, the lane divider is fed into a conveyor by a pick-up blade or other device that engages a bottom surface of the lane divider. Such systems, however, are not suitable for a heavy concrete, steel or water-filled barrier.
Other devices have been developed for moving positive protection devices, as shown for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,753 to McKay, U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,225 to Quittner, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,305 to Peek. These devices, however, suffer several deficiencies. For example, these devices are typically embodied in large transfer machines that are dedicated solely to the transfer of barriers, meaning they must be stored at already crowded work sites, or transported to and from the site as needed. In addition, they are costly and complex, yet serve only the limited function of moving barriers. Moreover, the devices are required to be supported by the ground on both sides of the barrier, meaning that they are exposed to vehicles on the traffic side of the barrier, which in turn exposes the operator to the very risks such barrier devices are intended to avoid. Moreover, the devices are typically configured to move the barriers a predetermined, set lateral distance, or a maximum or minimum such distance, which may not be optimum for a particular work-zone configuration. In addition, typical barrier movers position the operator/driver ahead of the barrier being moved, forcing the driver to use mirrors and/or cameras to observe the movement of the barrier. This also places the driver on the traffic side of the barrier, increasing the risk to the operator. Accordingly, there is a need for a device or system that can quickly and easily move or redeploy positive protection devices, yet is inexpensive, compact, easily stored and easily deployed.